This Morning I wanted to share a little ranch love. It’s been a few week since we took a look at what’s going on up there.

Here is the dining room! Well, it’s actually what the room looked like in the Zillow posting.

Seriously, how old is this photo? Personally, I love the window in here and I really liked the moulding and that was about it.

Here are our first images of the dining room. Have mercy on me with these images. The light is nuts and the cell colors are terrible. The pink carpet made everything pink. Blech.

Notice that you are looking around a post that has since been removed.

The dining room had a drop step down floor just like the den. It also had that fabulous pink carpet.

I really hated those rock posts at the front entry.

The first thing we did was remove that carpet and painted the floor with an oil based primer. Knowing we wanted to even up the floors, I had the same problem in here that I had in the den. In order to move up the floor, I had to remove the moulding. I could not replace it because it would be above the window. It’s ok, because I was able to remove all of it without damage and will probably use the solid oak somewhere else in the house.

I later had to remove the outer layer of wood so the sheet rock could lay flat against the wall.

The wood came off easily, but these nails! Talk about being sore from pulling.

Here is the entry without all the rock. Steve is the jackhammer king and removed every last piece of rock from the house. When I saw it I cried because I could actually see my vision starting to show up. Couldn’t be happier with the floors being level.

Next, our carpenter repaired all the electrical, and closed up the walls with sheet rock.

We decided to have the two posts at the entry sheet rocked in. They were weird because of the way they built them into the house. They didn’t have to worry about what they looked like because they were covered in rock. When they were naked, they were a mess. I’d love to have all the posts sheet rocked in but since they all go up to the beams at different levels, it was going to be really odd looking in several places. Instead we’re painting the wood posts.

Speaking of painting posts, check out what happened when we started painting the beams.

First of all, look how pretty it is after the drywall texturing was done.

I am really happy with the walls.

So here are a couple of the beams that have the first coat of paint on them. PS Look at the entry! What a huge difference!

The beams still need some caulking done and a second coat of paint. Personally, I LOVE the way they seem to disappear when I paint them.

Remember, the walls will be a different color than the beams so they’ll stand out again soon. I couldn’t believe how one coat of paint really opened up the place.

I also love all the texture we can still see in the beams and posts. I’m just so excited.

Now, as you’ll see in my inspiration photos, I’ve been planning on painting the full wall in here as a chalk board wall. I really miss the chalk board wall in my old house. I never got sick of it and can’t wait to have another one.

TaDa! It’s done! There is a whole blog entry I could write just about this wall and the trouble it gave me painting it. Anyway, It’s done and I love it.

I really like the contrast of the black against the white beams. It looks so clean and sharp. It sort of freaked me out to see something so current in the house.

Ok, so that’s what I have so far. When I get back up in June this will be the first room I finish because I need to move all the flooring into it so I can get the ceiling painted in the living room and get that wood feature wall completed.

Here is the color I’ve chosen for the walls throughout the main house, including the dining room. Thanks to my sister, Michelle who texted back and forth with me for almost an hour trying to help me choose a color. The color is abalone 2108-60. It’s also very telling that we both had the same color deck. Here is the color next to the chalk wall. I LOVE IT. All of the wood work in here will be painted white like the beams. You’ll be seeing the other colors on this sample too.

Of course I had to write on the wall and see what my big clock would look like against the black.

This is my dining room table. The image is of our old house. I’d really love to get different chairs. I’d love padded fabric chairs and a bench seat, maybe large tufted arm chairs at each end? Just as soon as I win the lottery! For now these will be my chairs. I may paint them differently.

I’m sold on this chandelier. It’s from Pottery Barn and they have a whole line of lights that go with this chandelier but are different shapes. I thought they’d be cute for the entryway, and kitchen.

I’m a little obsessed with these colors from Pier1’s new summer line. The best part is that Steve said he really liked them. That’s always a plus. I actually bought the plates on the lower right a while back. They are of oranges, lemons, and limes.

How about something like this:

I was planning on making a photo collage on one of the small walls but wanted to create images of food, or something appropriate for a dining room. These images are adorable. You can easily print a few of your own Instagram photos. http://www.cindylynnphotography.com/2011/07/big-picture/

I threw a few of my own photos together to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

I would be very intentional about the images I used. I’d probably shoot specific things and use all the same filters on them to make them more cohesive.

Well, that’s the dining room. As usual, let me know if you have any super cool ideas for me. I hope I’ve inspired you to do some of your own dining room designing. Or maybe I’ve just made you want to go shopping!

Hi Kel, I was looking at your white chairs and wondered if they would look good in black like the one in the shopping list blackboard room. I also know where you can get a vintage lamp like that in SJC. So cute. Auntie V